EQ-73 — measured — Pro Audio Plugins

On the bench

48 kHz · 512-block · offline · same procedure for every plugin

Magnitude responsestepped sine, −12 dBFS

Output level vs. frequency.

It shapes your tone by up to ±1.8 dB on purpose — that built-in curve is part of its sound.

Distortion vs level1 kHz, THD / THD+N

─ THD ┄ THD+N. THD is the trustworthy figure; THD+N is method-floor-limited at low levels.

It adds clear harmonic color (5.0% at full level) — the grit and warmth this design is meant to give.

Latency, reported

34 smp

Latency, measured

34 smp (matches)

Onset

30 smp

Noise floor

below measurement floor

Linearity residual

-50.5 dB (1000 Hz, -12/-18 dBFS)

Processing cost

not measured

Its own background hiss is below what the bench can even measure, so it adds no noise you would hear.

How hard you push it changes what it does (a -50 dB gap between levels) — expected for a saturator, which reacts to input level.

It delays the audio by 34 samples (0.7 ms at 48 kHz) and reports that delay, so your DAW lines it back up.

What these measurements mean

read from the numbers above · character / coloring design

On the bench it behaves like a coloring tool, scoring 10.0/10 on how clean its signal path is; its tone-shaping and harmonics are reported as character, not graded as faults. It shapes your tone by up to ±1.8 dB on purpose — that built-in curve is part of its sound. It adds clear harmonic color (5.0% at full level) — the grit and warmth this design is meant to give. Its own background hiss is below what the bench can even measure, so it adds no noise you would hear. How hard you push it changes what it does (a -50 dB gap between levels) — expected for a saturator, which reacts to input level. It delays the audio by 34 samples (0.7 ms at 48 kHz) and reports that delay, so your DAW lines it back up.

Measured score 10.0/10 — signal-path noise floor (the shaping and harmonics are the design's intent, shown as character, not graded). How scoring works.

What people report

sourced sentiment · in our words, not a bench measurement

8.0/10 independent reviews & user reports, 5 sources · a separate figure from the measured score

Consistently praised

Reviewers find the 1073 voicing convincing: the three-band EQ with stepped low-cut works in broad, musical strokes that sit well rather than carving narrow notches, and one writer who has run real Neve strips said it behaves much like the hardware.
The modeled preamp is treated as a real feature, not a gimmick: pushing the input adds warmth that builds into obvious distortion, with mic mode showing more third-harmonic content (extra presence, a looser feel) and line mode staying cleaner and quicker on transients.
Independent testers single it out as character-led and tight/punchy, especially on snares, kicks and bass for grit, with separate gain and frequency controls, mic/line switching, M/S operation, and four recall slots aiding quick comparison.
In a head-to-head forum test against a free 1073-style strip, a user judged the IK version warmer, cleaner and fuller in the low end, with M/S and finer EQ adjustment as added reasons to prefer it.

Common criticism

It is deliberately narrow in scope: a three-band character tool, not a precise corrective EQ, so most users pair it with a parametric EQ for surgical cleanup first.
It is heavy on the CPU; one reviewer ran out of native processing headroom with only eight instances on a capable i7 laptop, limiting how freely it can be spread across a session.
Smaller gripes surfaced: the GUI looked soft on high-resolution Retina displays, the mix of concentric and separate controls felt inconsistent to one reviewer, and a measurement reviewer noted minor low-frequency (around 30Hz) artifacts plus small level shifts when engaging the high-pass or switching to mic input.
Some forum skepticism that the preamp's appeal is partly a level boost (raising the need to gain-match when judging it), and that capable free 1073-style alternatives exist at no cost.

Sources — Everything Recording ↗ MusicRadar ↗ Sound on Sound ↗ HomeRecording forum ↗ IK Multimedia (maker) ↗

A review score is shown only when at least two independent sources — published reviews or genuine user discussion — return usable text. Launch or announcement coverage alone does not qualify, so some plugins read N/A here while still carrying a full measured score above.

How it sits in equalizers

measured score + bench figures, then the sourced review score (separate, N/A if unscored) · alphabetical · not ranked

Plugin	Measured /10	Mag dev	Max THD	Latency	Noise	Review /10
4020 Retro EQ	9.2	±1.4 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	8.0
6020 Ultimate EQ	9.5	±0.9 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	N/A
AE400 Active EQ	10.0	±0.0 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	7.8
Bettermaker EQ232D	10.0	±0.0 dB	0.000%	32 smp	<floor	8.6
Bettermaker Passive Equalizer	8.4	±0.2 dB	0.757%	32 smp	<floor	8.2
BM MEqualizer	10.0	±0.0 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	N/A
CORE EQ	10.0	±0.0 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	7.6
EQ SITRAL-295	8.4	±1.5 dB	0.031%	32 smp	<floor	7.5
EQ-73	10.0	±1.8 dB	5.037%	34 smp	<floor	8.0
EQ-81	10.0	±0.4 dB	0.017%	34 smp	<floor	8.4
EQP-1A	10.0	±1.7 dB	0.378%	34 smp	<floor	7.5
EQual	10.0	±0.0 dB	0.000%	19 smp	<floor	8.2
FilterBank E606	8.3	±3.0 dB	0.000%	0 smp	<floor	8.0
Master EQ-432	9.6	±0.0 dB	0.013%	19 smp	<floor	8.7
Sie-Q	10.0	±2.1 dB	10.054%	36 smp	−166	N/A